DELAND, FL—The Winthrop women's basketball team heads south before it takes off for Christmas break as it will participate in the Hatter Classic hosted by Stetson University, Dec. 20-21.
Winthrop will open up against Maine on Monday, Dec. 20 at 3:30 p.m. and then face Youngstown State at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 21. It will be the first time in school history that Winthrop has faced either school. Winthrop did participate in the Stetson Classic in 1996 as it lost to Northeastern 78-64 and the host Hatters, 71-64. It's the only two games Winthrop has ever played at Stetson. Winthrop, since its move to the NCAA Division I level, is 2-8 all-time in the state of Florida.
Winthrop is currently 2-6 on the season and has lost two in a row and faces a Maine team that is 1-8 and has lost seven straight games. This will be the Lady Eagles fourth and fifth games away from home this season. It will be the fifth and sixth time the Black Bears have played away.
So far this season the Lady Eagles are averaging almost 11 more points offensively away from home and have been more competitive. These two games will be the first neutral site games of the year for Winthrop, which is 1-2 on the road this year. Winthrop is scoring 53 points per game away from Rock Hill compared to 42.2 points per game at home. Defensively the numbers are pretty close at home and away as Winthrop allows 60.8 points at home and 57.3 on the road.
Freshman Dequesha McClanahan really enjoys playing away from home, according to her numbers. She averages 10 more points per game on the road and is shooting 39 percent on the road compared to eight percent (4-for-50) at home.
Senior Lacey Lyons and sophomore Mary Hathaway have really struggled behind the arc. Lyons started the year 8-for-13 from long range but has since only hit five of her last 28 three point attempts. Hathaway connected on four of her first seven threes of the year but is only 3-for-16 since.
As a team the Lady Eagles are shooting 38 percent from three in the three road games and just 22 percent at home. McClanahan is 7-for-15 from behind the arc and Lyons is 4-for-11 on the road.
Junior center TaQuoia Hammick needs just three more rebounds to reach 250 for her career. She also needs eight more blocks to crack the all-time Top 10 list.
Maine junior Samantha Wheeler averages a team-high 12.8 points while red-shirt freshman Amber Smith averages 12.4.
Wheeler is shooting 37 percent from the field and is 25-for-31 from the foul line (81 percent). She is one of the best rebounders on the team at 7.6 per game with 18 of her 38 on the offensive glass. However, Wheeler has not played since the team suffered a 66-55 loss to South Alabama in the Dead River Company Classic in Lawrence, KS on Nov. 27.
In her absence, Tanna Ross has led the team with 11.5 points while Smith has averaged 10.8.
Smith is a double threat as she shoots the three as well and leads the team in shots with 90 attempts (44 percent from the floor). As a team, Maine shoots well from the foul line at 70 percent and getting nearly 20 attempts per game.
Winthrop will face a Youngstown State team that has lost four straight games and 2-7 on the year. The Penguins have played three of their last four games on the road.
Sophomore forward Brandi Brown leads the team in scoring at 15 points per game as she shooting 43 percent from the field and also leads the team at 8.4 boards per game. Guards Bojana Dimitrov and Tieara Jones both average just over seven points per game and each average 4.6 rebounds. As a team Youngstown State takes 28 threes per game, but is shooting just 21 percent. Three players have 10 or more threes as Brown has 12, Dimitrov has 11 and Kenya Middlebrooks has 10.
Brown led the team in scoring in the six games, but the last three games have seen three different players top the team in scoring. Middlebrooks led the team with 16 against Kent State while Heidi Schlegel had a team-high 18 points at American and Jones had a team-best 15 points against Akron.
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